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Ohio's Best Journalism is the SPJ contest for the entire State of Ohio. It is coordinated jointly by the SPJ Pro Chapters in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus.

ELIGIBILITY:

Journalists are eligible who work for newspaper, magazine, radio, television, trade, digital and college media in Ohio and adjacent states that have significant reach into Ohio. Freelance journalists, who are Ohio residents, are eligible, regardless of where their work is published, broadcast or webcast. Last year, we added numerous freelance categories in response to the growing number of freelance journalists. Click here for Freelance categories. Newsletter and blog submissions also are welcome. Entrants need not be members of the Society of Professional Journalists. Submitted work must have been published or broadcast in 2017.

JUDGING:

SPJ chapters in other states will conduct judging. All decisions of judges are final.

GENERAL RULES:

By entering, entrants and their employers agree that entries or excerpts may be published in the Ohio SPJ Awards Program Booklet, in future year entry materials, on the contest website, on the Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland SPJ Pro Chapter websites, or in program publicity.

ENTRY LIMIT:

There is no limit on the number of categories an individual may enter. There is a three-entry limit by any individual within any one category.

All URL links and all entry links MUST remain active throughout 2018.

Please be sure to correctly fill out the field requesting which name(s), as well as the name of the media outlet, should appear on the certificate(s) or plaque(s) if your submission wins an award.

UPLOADING MULTIPLE ITEMS:

If you wish to enter more than one item (e.g. pdf, jpg, etc) as part of an entry, you must give the entry a generic title. This generic title may not be identical to the name of any individual item you upload as part of the entry. You may use the title “Body of Work” if applicable, or some other more descriptive yet generic title. You may upload a maximum of six separate files per entry. If you have more than six, please combine files into a single .ZIP file to upload.

Prizes will be awarded in two circulation divisions, fewer than 75,000, or 75,000+. You may enter articles in as many relevant categories as you wish. Just be sure to enter your submission(s) in the correct category(ies). Large print categories are reserved for publications with circulation of 75,000 and higher; small print categories are reserved for publications with circulation of less than 75,000.

RADIO AND TELEVISION RULES:

Stations in all Ohio markets will compete against each other. You may submit any given broadcast in as many relevant categories as you wish.

COLLEGE RULES:

Student material published in student publications or broadcast on student radio or television stations are eligible for eithercollege or professional categories, but not both.Student-produced material that is published in a professional publication or broadcast on a professional radio or television station is ineligible for college categories, and is only eligible for professional categories.

DIGITAL MEDIA:

All URL links and all entry links MUST remain active throughout 2018. If you want to submit more than one URL in a single entry, you must list all links in a single file (e.g. .pdf, .doc) and then upload the file. You cannot list more than one URL in the URL entry field.